Laws of Motion
by wokeuptonight
Summary: Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa Black, as explained by Isaac Newton. [COMPLETE] [AU]
1. Inertia

_A/N: I thought of this story while answering a Physics exam, which I probably failed._

* * *

**Laws of Motion**

* * *

**Inertia**

Andromeda bites her lip and leans over to peer at her younger cousin intently. Wisps of black hair flying and cheeks red from the cold, Sirius sits on the stool and eagerly plunks the Sorting Hat onto his head. Andromeda knows what's coming—has known it ever since Sirius sprayed distilled dragon's blood on the family tapestry at age three and was spanked thoroughly for it by his father.

"Slytherin, Slytherin, Slytherin," Bellatrix whispers beside Andromeda.

"_GRYFFINDOR!_"

Later, Bellatrix corners Sirius and tells him that he's a disgrace to the family name, to _Toujours pur_. Even from a distance, Andromeda can see Bellatrix mouth the words "family tree" and "Imperius." Andromeda reaches them just as Bellatrix sweeps off to the Slytherin common room, black hair and black cloak trailing behind her. One of Andromeda's fellow prefects—Tonks, was it?—is yelling at Bellatrix's retreating back to leave people who haven't done anything to her alone. By a stairwell, Sirius is putting on an admirable show of bravery, but Andromeda can still see him for what he is—a wide-eyed eleven-year-old toeing the line between family loyalty and self-discovery without even realizing it.

"Andy," Sirius says, burrowing his head in her hair as she crouches down and embraces him. "What is her problem?"

"She just doesn't like it when things she doesn't want to happen still happen," Andromeda says soothingly. "I think she got a little carried away," she adds as an afterthought, as if everybody who felt what Bellatrix is feeling threatens to use an Unforgivable Curse on their prepubescent cousin.

"She's barking mad," Tonks mutters, still standing nearby. Andromeda looks up to him, unsure whether to glower at him or agree. But before she can reach an internal compromise, Tonks seems to realize that he has insulted Bellatrix Black in front of one of the two people who love her the most. He shifts uncomfortably. "I suppose you've got everything under control here?"

"Yes," she says coolly. Bellatrix is _not_ mad.

"I'll see you around, then," Tonks tells Sirius, giving him an elder-brotherly pat on the back.

"Bye, Ted," Sirius replies a little more cheerfully.

Tonks gives Andromeda a polite nod and walks down the same corridor that her sister angrily stormed through a few moments ago. It only occurs to Andromeda now that Tonks is really tall, and that in their first conversation outside Potions, he had already put into words what she has always been scared to think.

* * *

"No grade below Outstanding in her OWLs," Cygnus Black tells Abraxas Malfoy proudly. "_And_ she's a Prefect." 

"And she's beautiful," observes Abraxas, leering at Andromeda. He turns to her father. "She is still a—?"

"Of course," Cygnus cuts in. "She is everything that a young pureblood woman is expected to be."

_Of course I am_, Andromeda thinks sourly. Narcissa tugs at Andromeda's dress from behind as Lucius Malfoy makes his way towards his father.

"Mr. Black," Lucius says, bowing. He turns to Andromeda. She feels Narcissa's grip on her dress disappear as her younger sister scampers off—to talk to Bellatrix, no doubt. "Miss Black," Lucius says, planting a chaste kiss on Andromeda's hand.

"You have met my son Lucius before, haven't you?" Abraxas asks Cygnus.

"Yes, yes, of course," Cygnus says, regarding the younger Malfoy with keen interest. "Out of Hogwarts already, am I right?"

"Yes, sir," Lucius replies politely. "Taking care of the family business."

"Has a better head for money than the Gringotts goblins themselves," Abraxas adds.

"No doubt," Cygnus agrees, for reasons Andromeda doesn't know.

"And you, Andromeda," Abraxas says, turning his unsettling blue-grey gaze back towards her, "what do you plan to do after Hogwarts?"

Andromeda has never really thought that anyone would ask her that before and actually listen to her answer. Then again, Abraxas Malfoy could be asking just to see whether she is willing to do nothing for the rest of her life, as a young pureblood lady ought to do.

"I'm thinking of becoming a Curse Breaker," she says shyly.

"What?" Lucius says, all politeness replaced by disbelief.

"Why?" Abraxas asks.

"Yes, Andromeda, why?" Cygnus adds, his voice a curious mixture of contempt at the thought of work and affection for his most diligent daughter.

Andromeda wants to say that it sounds like the most exciting thing in the world. That she wants to travel to far away places in the pursuit of knowledge and adventure, while at the same time helping her fellow wizards by safeguarding their wealth. That she finds the idea of living out of a trunk strangely appealing. In short, Andromeda wants to tell her father, her likely fiancé, and her almost-certain-future father-in-law everything that Ted Tonks told her in their second conversation outside of class, when they were both on their way to Professor Slughorn to ask him whether they still needed to read on the history of Amortentia again.

* * *

A glittering green skull, with a snake jutting out of the mouth, is hovering over Hogsmeade. 

Andromeda instinctively searches for her fellow schoolmates. She rounds up a few random Ravenclaw third years on High Street and herds them to the Hogwarts gates. Once they are safely in the grounds, she returns to the places in Hogsmeade that are popular with the students. To her immense relief, Fabian Prewett and Emmeline Meadowes are already casting temporary Shield Charms on the students milling in Honeydukes and leading them back to the school.

"Andy, go to Zonko's!" Emmeline says shrilly as the shop next to Honeydukes is set alight.

Like an Inferius, Andromeda automatically obeys. She speeds down the hill towards the popular joke shop, gathering a group of crying Hufflepuff girls and a panicky group of Gryffindors and casting a Shield Charm on them. Andromeda detachedly notices the flames erupting on either side of her and her group, the lack of Slytherins in the vicinity, and the hooded figures appearing briefly between the buildings and trees, which she may be just imagining anyway. The ominous-looking green skull looms ahead of her on the path; it seems to be drifting closer to Hogwarts, or maybe that's just late afternoon sunlight playing tricks…

"Shut up and go straight to your common rooms!" Andromeda shouts at one of the sobbing Hufflepuff girls as they reach the gates. "Don't stop until you get—"

Andromeda hears a thunderous crash coming from behind her. Without finishing her sentence, she runs back to the village—down the hill—her heart and brain and a stitch in her side all throbbing painfully, Andromeda sprints towards the direction of Madame Puddifoot's, where most of the noise seems to be coming from—

She nearly trips over a pair of legs lying motionless on the path. Seeing the blood stains on the jeans and fearing the worst, Andromeda looks to see whether the legs are still connected to an intact body. The body is Ted Tonks's, and he is being futilely dragged away by the skinnier Edgar Bones.

"Got Stunned or something," Edgar manages to gasp. "I don't know, he may have even been concussed … I've been with him ten minutes and he hasn't moved…"

"Not … dead?" Andromeda chokes out, dropping down on her knees to inspect Tonks's wounds.

"Don't do that out in the open!" Edgar swats her hands away from Tonks's scarred cheeks. "They might find us! Quick, help me bring him over to that bush over there … My wand snapped, have you got yours?"

Andromeda levitates Tonks's body a few inches above the ground and brings him to a secluded spot behind a giant oak tree.

"We can't move him anymore," Andromeda whispers, gingerly prodding at Tonks's arms and legs with her fingers. "I think he broke something." She looks up to see Edgar crawling out of their hiding place. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I have to find Amelia," he explains hastily. "Take care of Ted. Oh look, I think he's waking up… "

"_You haven't got a wand!_" Andromeda hisses warningly, but Edgar ignores her and runs off to look for his sister.

"Black?"

Tonks's eyes slowly flutter open. Looking down into them, Andromeda gets the strange feeling that he isn't seeing her clearly.

"Tonks," she breathed, slumping against the tree. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her ribcage and the vein in her temple pulsing faster, but _thank Merlin_, she thinks, not really knowing why, _thank Merlin that Ted is alive_.

"Let's get out of here," Tonks says. He tries to sit up but collapses. "Ouch …"

"You've broken a couple of bones," she tells him. "I'm going to levitate you instead." She pulls out her wand from her pocket and is about to swish and flick when she hears a familiar voice.

"Andromeda Black, what are you _doing_?"

Andromeda turns around to face Bellatrix—composed, unscathed Bellatrix.

"Bella!" She knows she should be tending to Tonks, but Andromeda hasn't seen her sister since the annual Black Christmas ball nearly ten months ago. She leaps into Bellatrix's arms, only to be pushed away.

"What are you doing with _him_?" Bellatrix asks coldly.

Andromeda notices that Bellatrix is wearing a black cloak and that her wand is drawn. Something lodges itself in Andromeda's throat. She knows that her older sister hates associating with Muggle-borns, but surely she wouldn't resort to something as destructive as setting fire to an entire village…

"Helping him," Andromeda answers feebly. She bends down to Ted, who is staring wide-eyed and terrified at Bellatrix.

"You—" he gasps, his eyes warily trained on her wand.

"Me," Bellatrix says, sneering. She playfully turns her wand around with her fingers as if it were a baton—_as if she were taunting Ted_, Andromeda thinks, alarmed.

Bellatrix's shiny red lips curl into a disdainful smirk. Andromeda doesn't know what comes over her. All she knows is that she can no longer stay on Bellatrix's side. She is only vaguely aware of the unfamiliar ache that spreads through her as she looks on Ted's face streaked with dirt and the blood that Bellatrix desperately wants to see destroyed. But the feeling is enough to make Andromeda Petrify her sister.

She drops her wand at what she has done and crumples to the ground.

"An…dro…meda," Ted whispers. He is resting on his elbows and slowly pulling himself to where Andromeda is crying. He stops when he is right beside her.

"Ted," she moans softly.

"You can lean on me if you want," he says, bringing his shoulder closer to her chin.

Andromeda accepts his offer gratefully. She allows herself to put her full weight on his shoulder and breathe in the smell of trees and fire. She decides that she likes the unspoken conversations between them the best.


	2. Acceleration

_A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed so far! I am also happy to report that my Physics grade went up in time for my high school graduation. That said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

* * *

**Acceleration**

Bellatrix could see the outline of a robed arm on the rests of the armchair, but not of a head. This bothers her more than the cold does, and the cold bothers her a lot. She had just flown for two hours over wintry, pitch-black countryside. While she is grateful for the fire blazing in the hearth, she still doesn't see why they couldn't have just Apparated to this imposing manor house. 

"The Dark Lord has his reasons," Rodolphus had curtly replied when she had told him this.

The Dark Lord waves a hand. Rodolphus and Bellatrix stand before the armchair. She remembers how Rodolphus had first described the Dark Lord to her—how he was more than a man. Seated on the armchair, he seems human enough. But the reddish gleam in his reptilian-looking eyes tells Bellatrix that Rodolphus could be right.

"Bellatrix Black, my lord," Rodolphus says, bowing. "The eldest child of Cygnus and Druella Black—and my fiancé."

Bellatrix bows too, resisting the urge to smile at the memory of Rodolphus's hands on her the night before. She figures this Dark Lord doesn't take too kindly to smiling, until she sees him smile himself.

"Come here," he tells her, conjuring an armchair out of nowhere. Bellatrix dutifully sits on it while Rodolphus converses with two other men in black robes, who Bellatrix had mistaken for shadows.

For a while the Dark Lord looks intently into her eyes. Bellatrix is determined not to be the one to look away. He seems to be reading not her face, which she keeps composed, but her mind, which is wordlessly asking him how he got the power to make the room seem perfectly still and the people in it ready to do his bidding. She knows what he wants to do for wizardkind, and his curiously pale body appears to glow with the conviction to do it. She wants what he wants, and she can tell that together they can get it. She just needs to find out what she has to give.

"You believe in putting these upstart Mudbloods in their rightful place," he finally says.

"I do," Bellatrix replies, even if it wasn't a question. He still hasn't broken eye contact. She wonders if he even blinks.

"And you would do anything to do that," he adds.

Maybe it's the warmth from the hearth and from the Dark Lord's bloodshot gaze, but Bellatrix does feel that in this impenetrable bubble of fire, she can do anything. But "anything" meant _anything_—cheating, torture, murder…

Bellatrix takes a deep breath. "I am, my lord."

* * *

"_Aaarrrrgh!_" 

Petrified and supine, Bellatrix can only see the sky above her. But even that view soon gets obstructed by a towering figure that mutters a spell and waves a wand in her direction. Fearing the worst, Bellatrix instead feels her limbs loosen. Regaining mobility quickly, she clasps the hand that is offered to her and allows herself to be pulled up.

"Are you all right?" Rodolphus asks, brushing her hair from her face.

"I'm fine, thank you," she says breathlessly.

"_Aaah—arrrrgh!_"

Bellatrix turns around. Lucius Malfoy is standing over that Mudblood Andromeda was trying to help. The boy trembles and flails on the ground as the Cruciatus Curse hits him from Lucius's wand. Bellatrix couldn't see her sister anywhere.

"Where's Andromeda?" she asks, gripping her wand tightly between her fingers. Bellatrix doesn't know what she will do once she sees her sister, but she's pretty sure she will need her wand.

"Safe in the castle," Lucius answers, momentarily looking up from the writhing Mudblood—Tonks, that's his name—to answer Bellatrix. "I told her that I'd bring this boy myself." He casts another disdainful sneer and a silent curse at the boy.

"You didn't do anything to her?" Bellatrix asks Lucius.

"I wouldn't want to hurt the girl I plan on marrying," he replies smoothly.

At this, Bellatrix notices the Mudblood's eyes widen with shock and…something familiar she can't put her finger on but looks suspiciously like envy. She can't stand the thought of the Mudblood harboring any—Bellatrix grimaces—_romantic_ intentions towards her sister, but she doesn't want Andromeda to think that Lucius is a torturer either.

"Bring him back, Lucius," she says in a tone that invites no arguments. Surprised at the command, Lucius nonetheless levitates the Mudblood towards the castle, but not before raising his eyebrows at Bellatrix.

She and Rodolphus start walking. Bellatrix burns with anger—at her sister, at her own carelessness (_What was I thinking_, Bellatrix wonders, _wasting my time by talking_?), at that hint of condescension that Lucius occasionally shows her.

"Was she the one who Petri—" Rodolphus began.

"I don't want to talk about it," Bellatrix cuts in and, wanting nothing more than a blazing hearth to sit by, blasts a nearby rock to pieces.

* * *

The Dark Lord looks pleased. 

The two Hit Wizards Bellatrix had captured sit chained to two comfortable armchairs in this rarely-used study in the Riddle Manor. A fire crackles merrily behind them, making use of their broken wands. The Dark Lord circles them, appraising them. Tegerson and Muniroy stare at him, wide-eyed and beyond disbelief. With their connections, no doubt they have already heard of this Dark wizard who has been worrying more than one person in the Ministry already.

Bellatrix sees the Hit Wizards visibly crumple when the Dark Lord withdraws his wand. They have also probably heard of what has happened to those whose deaths the Dark Lord has taken responsibility for—the way the victims are sometimes found with their heads facing backwards, their mouths open in an expression of horror…

Nothing is heard but the Dark Lord's pacing on the cold stone floor. He goes around the chairs once, twice, thrice. Bellatrix stands still by the grate. Tegerson looks sallower than he did earlier this evening, and tiny beads of sweat have appeared on Muniroy's forehead.

Lord Voldemort stops walking. A corner of his lips curl in disgust. He nods to Bellatrix and leaves the room.

Bellatrix points to the walls, the windows, the floor, and the ceiling. "_Silencio_," she says.

They already scream when the first curse hits them. The sound of their terror energizes Bellatrix, running through her body like a barely benign bolt of lightning. She wants to hear more. She wants to bottle the auditory proof of her power over them. It occurs to Bellatrix—as Tegerson's eyes roll around in their sockets and Muniroy throws his head too far back—that she should get a Pensieve. She knows there will be many more memories like this.

"Just…kill…us…already," Muniroy gasps between hexes.

"Not in your state," Bellatrix coos. She sounds maternal even to herself, and vaguely wonders how a child of hers and Rodolphus would turn out to be like.

_He wouldn't make the same mistakes_, Bellatrix vows.

Tegerson glazed eyes stare at her pitifully—or they would if he could still focus his pupils. Rivulets of blood leak from the corners. Something unfamiliar stirs at the back of Bellatrix's head for a moment, but it isn't enough to make her stop. She couldn't possibly stop when it comes to the men who had nearly discovered the Dark Lord's hideout. How appropriate that they would die in it.

"_Crucio! Crucio!_"

Bellatrix's mind whirls with all the curses she'd like to cast but can't get her tongue to say fast enough. She is beginning to sweat and wishes she didn't wear black velvet robes today. Her wand feels hot in her shaking fingers; Bellatrix can swear that she feels each spell go from her skin to the wood and out the end.

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

Bellatrix imagines that that green light might actually be comforting to them. But it doesn't matter. They are beyond recognition when she is finished. Their faces have grooves like the bark of old trees and only the whites of their eyes can be seen. Their green veins are raised all over their skin. Even their mothers would have a hard time identifying them.

Bellatrix binds their ashen bodies with some conjured rope, careful not to get any of the drool from their open mouths on her. She covers them with an Invisibility Cloak and brings them to the telephone booth that is the entrance to the Ministry of Magic offices. There she props them up on both sides of the telephone and leaves. The next kindhearted Ministry lackey to report for work would have to take all the trouble of bringing them in.

Bellatrix flies back to the Riddle House to report to the Dark Lord what she's done. He is not given to excessive praising, but she thinks that the faint smile he gives her is gratifyingly warm.

* * *

_A/N: HP Lexicon rules. Whenever I'm too lazy to look something up in the books, the site saves my life. I totally made up Tegerson and Muniroy, obviously (but I really avoid making up OCs as much as possible). I couldn't find enough Hit Wizards. Anyway, I got their names from _tegere _and _munire_, which can both mean "to defend," according to William Whitaker's online Latin dictionary. _


	3. Interaction

_A/N: This was the hardest chapter to write because the Third Law can be applied to, well, anything. It came out a bit longer than the other chapters—and, I have a feeling, a bit crappier too. Oh well, I hope you enjoy anyway._ _Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed!_

**Interaction**

Narcissa had been annoyed that Rabastan Lestrange had detained her from going to Hogsmeade, but considering what had happened, she is currently grateful that he couldn't meet the required five feet of parchment for his Charms essay. Although now he thinks he somehow saved her.

She leaves the common room to get away from him and to look for Andromeda. Narcissa figures that her sister would be in the hospital wing with the wounded, so she directs her feet there, all the while wondering how the other Houses were doing at the moment. Slytherin had surprisingly few injured students—the worst case seems to be Severus Snape, who had a long cut on his cheek. She hasn't seen her sister yet, though. She hopes that Andy hadn't been injured.

"_Obliviate._"

Narcissa thinks she may be imagining that somebody's memory is being modified in the corridor outside the infirmary. She is, however, certain that she isn't imagining Lucius Malfoy levitating a wounded Hogwarts student on the way to Madam Pomfrey.

There is nobody else nearby.

"Lucius!" she calls out. He stops and turns to her.

"Miss Black," he says, nodding his head.

"What happened to him?" Narcissa asks, gesturing to the boy hovering in front of Lucius.

Before Lucius can reply, Narcissa hears the clacking sound of someone running towards them.

"Oh, good, you brought him," Andromeda says breathlessly, her face flushed from exertion. "Thank you so much, Lucius. Dumbledore wouldn't like it if the Head Boy had gone missing and—oh hello, Narcissa. Rabastan's looking for you."

Narcissa sees Lucius suppress a chuckle, and frowns. The other two don't seem to notice.

"Is there anybody else left outside?" Andromeda asks Lucius.

"No students," he replies, "although I passed by McGonagall and Kettleburn on the way here. I assume they're investigating what happened as we speak."

"They'd better," Andromeda says, fuming. "The way some of the students were injured—Gideon Prewett's face was practically covered in burns—" She pauses and looks up at Tonks. "Lucius," she says inquisitively, "have you seen Be—"

"We can talk later," Lucius interrupts her. Narcissa likes how he sounds firm and polite at the same time, although she's itching to know what there is to talk about. Maybe Andy will tell her after. "This … boy has waited for treatment for too long."

"I suppose," Andromeda murmurs. She looks up at Tonks again. His head is flopping to one side.

"Until we meet again, Andromeda," Lucius says, opening the door to the infirmary. "Narcissa."

"Goodbye," the two girls say in unison.

"You're _so _obvious," Andromeda tells Narcissa back in the dormitory. Narcissa throws a pillow at her. She sits up, expecting a pillow fight, until she sees how distracted her sister is.

"Andy? What's the matter?"

Andromeda sighs. "You're lucky you didn't go to Hogsmeade today, Cissy," is all she says.

Narcissa hates seeing any of her sisters upset. She hugs Andromeda and promises never to let her feel as bad as she does now.

But she still wants to know what she and Lucius will talk about.

* * *

"Look at this," Sirius says, angrily showing the front page of _The Daily Prophet_ to his cousins. "Look at what these bastards have done now."

"Language, Sirius," Andromeda warns, to which he sticks out his tongue.

The headline reads: _MISSING HIT WIZARDS FOUND DEAD._ Narcissa quickly scans through the article. Apparently, those two Hit Wizards everyone had been talking about been found dead and unrecognizable in the phone booth leading to the Ministry of Magic offices. Only their fingerprints and the mole on the side of Tegerson's eye had identified them.

"'_Followers of the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort have claimed responsibility for the deaths_,'" Narcissa reads out loud. "'_This group, known as the Death Eaters, have also been linked to twelve disappearances in the past two months alone_…'"

"I don't see," Andromeda says from her place in the armchair, "how _anyone_ could do such things in the name of blood alone. I mean, if it weren't for Muggles, the whole of wizardkind would have died out century's ago. This _Voldemort_ is such a sick, twisted—"

"Andromeda," Bellatrix drawls lazily, almost as if in a dream, "don't speak so harshly of things you don't fully understand."

Narcissa stares at Bellatrix. Surely Bella didn't condone such actions, even if they were against Muggleborns.

Andromeda looks warily at Bellatrix, although the rising color in her cheeks tell Narcissa that she is more than a little angry. Narcissa couldn't blame Andromeda. She inches away from Bellatrix, a bit scared of what her eldest sister might say next.

For her part, Andromeda just leaves the room. "Andy, wait," Sirius says, getting up and running after her. The slam of the door makes Regulus look up from his pack of exploding cards.

"Who's going to play with me?" he asks, looking at Narcissa and Bellatrix.

"Maybe later," Bellatrix says, and a put-out Regulus goes back to playing. Upon closer inspection, Bellatrix looks more tired than usual. But there is a strange gleam in her eyes that Narcissa hadn't noticed before. She doesn't want to think it, but Narcissa thinks that Bellatrix is drifting further away from her and Andromeda.

"You seem tired," Narcissa says.

"A bit," Bellatrix replies, staring out the window at the falling snow.

"Rodolphus keeping you up all night?" Narcissa says, trying and failing to elicit something more than a small smile. She should leave the wisecracking to Sirius next time.

"Haha, you can say that," Bella finally answers. "No, actually, it's more of—well, I don't expect you to understand … I guess you can say I'm trying to find my place in the world."

"But you're Bella," Narcissa says, moving closer to her. "You've always been so sure about yourself."

"I know, but it's different when you're out of school, even more so when you're a married pureblood woman." Bellatrix faces Narcissa and starts playing with her hands. "When you're in school you get taught all these things that you know you will never use. But that doesn't stop you from … forming your own opinion about them. When you have a husband, especially one as rich as Rodolphus—and you and Andy will know what that's like—you're not expected to do anything." Bellatrix sits up a little straighter. The strange gleam becomes more obvious and her voice rises. "So all that's left of who you are is what you think … and I think of doing so much Narcissa, because I know what has to be done now … There _is_ a way to make things better for our kind… It may take a lot out of me, but I need to do _something_…"

Narcissa takes a sideways glance at the newspaper on the coffee table. _MISSING HIT WIZARDS FOUND DEAD_.

"Maybe you're a bit … stretched too thin," Narcissa tells Bellatrix. She is glad that the worry doesn't show too much in her voice. "I can see why doing nothing would be unappealing to you—"

"I'm happy you understand," Bellatrix cuts in, her voice back to its normal pitch. She looks at Narcissa keenly. Narcissa has a feeling that she is being studied. She is surprised when the next thing Bellatrix does is to embrace her, but she doesn't complain. Maybe this way, Bella can pass on some of her madness. Narcissa knows that her sister can't handle it alone.

* * *

_INFERI ATTACK MUGGLE UNDERGROUND; AT LEAST 15 DEAD._

"What a sight that must have been," Narcissa says to no one in particular.

"What must have been a sight?"

Narcissa freezes. She hadn't realized that she and Lucius were the only two people left in the game room of the Black Manor. Sirius and Regulus were already in bed—_as are Rodolphus and Bella, probably_, she thinks wryly—and Andromeda was most likely still being showered with gifts for her graduation from Hogwarts.

"The Inferi in the Muggle Underground," Narcissa explains.

Lucius picks up the newspaper. "Ah, I see," he says after a while. "No doubt you are horrified by such a tragic event."

"Aren't you?" Narcissa asks him.

"I am more worried about the discovery of our world by the Muggles," he replies, browsing through the rest of the newspaper. "Muggles have always wanted easier lives than the ones they have now. All those contraptions they come up with are proofs of that. Just think of what they'll do once they find out that they are people living among them who could make the dead move again."

"They still don't deserve to die for that," Narcissa counters. "Wizards also want to have the best possible lives."

"True," he says thoughtfully, "but unlike Muggles, the privilege to do magic is readily given to us. Doesn't that make you think that from the beginning, our kind already deserved it?" Lucius stops in the sports section of the newspaper. "And that, possessing a richer tradition of this power, the purebloods should be the ones who will run the rest of the wizarding world?"

Narcissa is too stunned by Lucius' intensity—and the ever-shrinking distance between their faces—to answer. He seems to realize this and takes a step back. "Pardon me, Miss Black," he says, all formality restored. "I seemed to have gotten carried away."

_And yet…_

"I appreciate being talked to as your equal," she says evenly. "I don't always get such direct answers."

"Really?" It is Lucius' turn to be stunned. "And I thought at least Bellatrix would—Never mind."

"Bellatrix would what?" _What are you hiding from me?_ Narcissa wants to ask. _Have you been hiding this from Andy too?_ But then it dawns on Narcissa.

"_Never mind_," Lucius says through gritted teeth, looking at the grandfather clock in the corner. Looking back at Narcissa, he says, "Excuse me, but I will look for Andromeda now."

He is turning the doorknob when Narcissa says, "What you're doing is dangerous."

Lucius stops. Narcissa knows that he is too smart to contradict her when the whole truth is so obvious to both of them. She notes with some satisfaction that his attention is once more trained on her and not on any of her sisters. She decides to take advantage of this.

"Inferi?" she practically yells. "Kidnapping and killing Hit Wizards? And then bragging about it afterwards? Are you people mad?" When she gets no answer, she continues, "I've grown up my whole life being taught that purebloods were superior. For Merlin's sake, my family motto is _Toujours pur_. But I refuse to believe that we'd have to resort to murdering Muggles. If you're so worried about being discovered by them, why don't you just leave them alone? Why want to kill those who have stopped believing in witches on broomsticks a long time ago?"

Narcissa is breathing deeply now as she waits for a reply. If there was a time for Lucius to use his gift of direct speech on her, it would have to be now.

"Do you really want to know?" Lucius asks, advancing towards her. Narcissa stands her ground, but not without shivering from the cold of his steel-grey eyes.

"Yes," she answers with conviction. Narcissa wants to know what is this … _thing_ that is making Bella willing to go mad and Andy seek comfort in the arms of Ted Tonks the way she did before the end of term, in the first and last time Narcissa had seen them together.

"I will have to ask permission to bring you," Lucius says. "But you are young. Not even sixteen, am I right? Still…" He looks at her as if seeing her for the first time. Narcissa is half-flattered at how his eyes slowly travel from her face to the hem of her dress robes. But she is also half-terrified.

"I will owl you," he says after an awkward silence. "I will owl Bella as well about the meeting. But I can't promise you anything, Narcissa. And I will have to ask you to make an Unbreakable Vow. You musn't tell anybody about—"

Suddenly, Sirius bursts into the room. His lips quiver as he tries to hold back tears. Narcissa envelops him in an embrace, while Lucius lingers beside them.

Sirius says "Andy ran away" into Narcissa's shoulder, and that makes her even more determined.


End file.
